I remember that as a child growing up in church, my Sunday school mates and I would marvel at how little faith and confidence the disciples had in Jesus. After all, we truly believed he WAS the Messiah and God incarnate because that's what our parents told us and that's the story we got from the paper figurines walking along the felt board. As I got older and understood things like fear, disappointment, and uncertainty and began to learn about history, context, and complexity, the disciples' simple act of following Jesus to the cross and subsequently beyond it became the greatest act of faith I could see.Judas, however, remained a mystery to me. I didn't understand how one who walked so closely with Jesus could betray him, much less with a kiss of deep friendship. Those closest to me know that I give the benefit of the doubt to others and hope that they will become their best to an unwieldy degree such that I frequently vacillate between the brightest hopes and the darkest disappointments. So I went into this WANTING Judas to be good. Maybe not good, but at least not all bad. After all, he was there when Jesus was chased out of towns, when the boat rocked in the storm, and when Jesus walked on water. And that perspective is exactly what Tosca presents here. Actually, Tosca does one better and presents an actual person. Someone living and breathing in the tumultuous world of Israel under Roman rule, scarred and traumatized by the violence of that time, and craving for the freedom and purity of God.All this poetic waxing aside, I must admit that I almost gave up on this book maybe 2/3 of the way in because it got a little slow during Jesus' three years of ministry. It's quite a long while of wanting to follow Jesus but being confused by his contradictory and untraditional teachings. However, the last part where Judas commits his infamous acts was heart-wrenching and beautiful, and so worth the wait. Part of the issue I had with this novel is that the author expected his readers to have a bit of biblical background; I just have a bare bones background with Christianity, unfortunately, and while I admittedly need to shore this up, I thought I would not have any issues following along in Iscariot. Parts were difficult to follow and I had to skim through it, but overall, it was not a bad read. Quite interesting to "see" things from the "betrayer's" point of view.
What do You think about Iscariot (2013)?
I found this book hard to read...not sure if it was the story of Judas that made it hard or what!??!
—aisfranklin_
An excellent story to read during Lent. It's made me look from a different perspective.
—lpiganell
